Bravo Squad Meets the DC Wasteland
by TheIronGiant
Summary: Vault 100 loses contact with the last populated northern vault and the 'Immortal' Bravo squad is sent to investigate.
1. Into the Wasteland

The Wastelands Finest

**A/N: **  
**[This is the revised version of the first chapter. The original lacked world building, character development, pacing, and was too compact with not much in the way of detail. I've been reading A LOT of ME/Halo crossover stories and as you can see some of the character names and specialties are based off of the Spartan II's George(Jorge-052), Linda-058, and of course John-117…I'll go back and change them soon. If your familiar with the Halo universe than you'll notice things I've taken from that universe. The training at such a young age, although it's nothing as extreme as the Spartans training, it's still very similar, from Linda's affection for sniper rifles, to George with his heavy weapons, and John being able to use damn near every weapon he comes across with deadly accuracy.**  
**I rationalize it like this…the vaults were, for the most part, social experiments. Vault 101 in Fallout 3 was never to be opened, Vault 16 in Fallout New Vegas had that weird sacrifice thing, Vault 87 in Fallout 3 was testing the FEV on its residents, and others that I'm either forgetting or not mentioning. My idea is that Vault 100 is replicating a military based society as their social experiment. With that said let's move on to the story of Vault 100's Vault Recon.]**

My name is John and I grew up in Vault 100 with sixty-six other kids my age with my best friends, George and Linda. We had been friends since before we got our pip boys and started training at the age of thirteen.

For three years the training would help with our strength and endurance. This was the basic training for all of the vaults citizens. When we took the GOAT only thirty-two out of the sixty-seven students were selected for active service. Then after two years of brutal combat training twenty of us were selected by the overseer to join Vault Recon. The twenty of us were then divided into teams of four, Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta and Echo.

Linda was perfect for the recon and infiltration operations; she was fast and able to move without a sound. She was appointed the team sniper due to her incredible talent with her extensively modified high powered rifle, which she affectionately named Vera after her mother.

George wasn't someone who you'd expect to be a recon operative. He was built like a tank, standing at six feet three inches and weighing in at two hundred seventy-five pounds, but despite his size he was light on his feet and just as skilled at stealth infiltration as anyone else. He was the heavy weapons and explosives specialist. Although we were all trained in basic first aid he volunteered to be trained as a field medic as well.

Then there was me, John. After I proved I was a crack shot with almost every weapon in the armory, I was assigned the role of the designated marksman. Our Staff Sergeant had told me I had the mind of "A brilliant tactician", so I was promoted to a squad leader. I had an uncanny ability for planning and completing what were thought to be suicide missions. As a result I was known to all the other recon squads as the shadow of death. I thought the nickname was dumb, I was just doing what we were trained to do, but it stuck somehow.

The first mission I lead was a success and when we returned the overseer was astounded that mission was carried out without a problem. The mission objective was to retrieve a prototype LMG from an old world army base along the Potomac River. After four days of heavy recon and planning we systematically tore through the defenses and in one hour had retrieved the LMG as well as the research notes, some classified documents, schematics for several energy weapons, and the base commander's hat and sidearm. For the next year I'd lead my team on six recon ops with the help of an extra squad or two and twelve recon/infiltration ops with just Bravo squad.

'What a fucking mess' I thought holding my head in my hands. "How the fuck did this happen?" I muttered to myself. I had gone over the plan a dozen times beforehand but the raiders still managed to kill Benny. All it takes is one lucky shot, or one simple mistake. 'Just a simple infiltration mission to destroy a raider outpost that was a little too close to the vault and Benny, the new recruit, had found a way to mess it up.'

Everything was going smoothly until Benny went to set his charge when a raider bumped into his dumb ass. That's when everything went south; a firefight broke out inside of the building so we didn't have Linda's sniper fire to cover us. We fought our way out bobbing and weaving sticking to the shadows when Benny got shot in the back. Thanks to the Kevlar suits the bullet wouldn't have done too much damage, but it hit the suits power supply rendering the stealth system useless exposing him to the two dozen raiders that had heard the gunfire and ran inside. He died under a hail of gunfire. We didn't have a choice but to leave the body behind to be buried in the rubble. George and I made it safely back to the rendezvous point where Linda was waiting. I told her Benny had been killed and his body was now resting under what was left of the raider base. We returned to the vault with our objective complete but the all too familiar pain of losing of a squad mate.

"Who do you think is gonna win?" I asked Troy, leader of Alpha squad, as we watched Linda and Kenny who had been sparring for the last twenty minutes. "Linda's fast but Kenny's pretty good with his hands, it looks like he might be able to hold his own-" I was cut off when Kenny sidestepped to the right avoiding a jab and swung his fist into Linda's solar plexus. Taking advantage of her temporary disabled state of mind he spun on his left heel and kicked the back of her knee. Linda fell to her knees but before she could recover Kenny quickly got her pinned to the ground in a head lock. After a few seconds of struggling she tapped out. Kenny released her, coughing as she got to her feet, they both turned to each other and after a moment they both burst into laughter.

After Linda recovered from her laughter, "Looks like I owe you that drink after all."

"Yes you do," he turned to the small crowd that had been watching the fight. "Down goes Bravo squad's master of unarmed combat!" Kenny yelled holding his fists up in the air. "John, if you would be so kind as to correct the score board."

I walked over to the leader board and moved Kenny's tag up one space and Linda's down one space. Kenny was now on the top of the score board and would be challenged more often.

I walked into Bravo squad's room and found Linda at the end of the meeting/planning table cleaning and calibrating Vera just like she usually does. I looked over to George who was sorting his equipment in his rucksack and gave him a nod. I turned to make my way over to my locker to patch a tear in the Kevlar body suit of my armor and repair one of the knee plates that had been damaged in the last mission by a stray bullet. I saw the new team member tinkering with my helmet on the far side of the table. I walked over to where he was sitting and sat down next to him.

"What are you doing with my armor?" I asked, looking at my helmet and the parts he'd taken out and a few other parts that I didn't recognize.

"I was just upgrading your HUD and installing a few new parts I designed and tested myself." He said proudly, as I raised an eyebrow he explained, "I upgraded the motion sensor so it scans a radius of twenty yards even inside most structures. I installed an IFF indicator to the motion sensor as well." He picked up the helmets communications receiver, "I'm fitting your earpiece with a module that will amplify the signal doubling it effective range."

I looked at my partially disassembled helmet for a moment before rattling off a lightning round of questions.

"Night vision?"

"Yup."

"Stealth status?"

"You bet."

"Ammo counter?"

"Of course."

"Auto-stim and med-x injectors?"

"Just installed an upgrade for that an hour ago."

"Health status and limb condition"

"Yessir."

"Waypoint for the objectives?"

His eyes suddenly widened, "…I hadn't thought of that…" he said nervously.

I chuckled and gave him a pat on the back, "Don't worry about it. Just get _all _of our helmets up to par with mine and you can forget about that last one. What's your name?"

"David sir."

"Welcome to Bravo squad David" shaking his hand. Nodding toward Linda and George, "That's Linda our resident sharpshooter." She looked up from Vera and gave a small smile and a wave. "That's George, heavy weapons and field medic. I'm John, Bravo squad's leader; it's good to have you on board. Aside from the obvious" I said gesturing towards the table, "do you have any other expertise?"

"Well I'm one of the vaults best technicians; I designed a new stealth upgrade for the Kevlar body suits that'll keep you hidden from infrared scanners on the defense robots in old world military bases. I was developing a new composite alloy for the plating on the recon armor before I got transferred from the reserves."

"You any good with a rifle?" Linda asked.

"I ranked in the top three during long-range marksman training, but I don't have the steady hands for it." Getting a surprised look from Linda, "However in the simulator I was calculating shots from two miles out."

Linda starred at him wide eyed, "That's incredible, John it would be a waste not to use him as a spotter."

"Sounds good to me, David you'll in charge of field repair as well as being Linda's spotter. Do you have any experience in the wasteland-" I noticed someone else enter the squad room. "Bravo squad, attention!"

Everyone stood and snapped to a crisp salute as the Staff Sergeant entered the room. "At ease Bravo squad, I see you've met the new member of Bravo squad. I've got a mission that I need handled John, and this one comes all the way from the top. The overseer specifically requested Bravo squad for this one."

That got my attention, the orders usually come from the commanders of Vault Recon, and I'd never been given a mission from the overseer. "I take it this isn't just recon or infiltration sir."

"That's correct, this is a classified operation. I'm sorry that this has to be you're first mission David, but Bravo squad needs a tech expert for this op. All communications have suddenly stopped with the last remaining northern vault, Vault 101. The vault has been dark for one week, protocol dictates that we wait for them to reestablish communications; it could be a simple equipment malfunction, after two hundred years of use. We don't know what happened but seeing as that is the last vault that has maintained communications with us, and the overseer has decided to send a squad to investigate. Bravo squad is the best Vault Recon has to offer and the reputation as being 'immortal' have made this squad irreplaceable to VR. Bravo squad will now receive all high priority missions."

He turned his attention to me, "John, this mission's primary objective: Gain access to Vault 101 and restore communications. This is where David comes in; he will manually override vault door controls to gain access from the outside." He handed me the intel holo disk, "The secondary objectives: Status report on the residents; if the vault has been rendered uninhabitable you are to escort the survivors back to Vault 100. I also expect detailed recon on the northern wasteland and any survivors there. The ROE (rules of engagement) will be your call, but avoid engagement with the native population whenever possible."

"Yes sir, I'll get it done. When do we deploy?"

"This is the most important operation that Vault Recon has ever dealt with. John, take the rest of the day to draft a plan of how to carry out your mission. Everyone else take the rest of the day to prep your gear for extended deployment and David I want you to finish all upgrades to the armor plating and stealth systems on the body suits. You leave at 0700 tomorrow."

A/N: OK…so like I said in the first AN, some stuff from the Halo universe has rubbed off on my story; the HUD in the PARTS of the armor. The stealth armor in Fallout 3 looks like the body suits under the MJOLNIR armor the Spartans use. I don't see it as too far of a stretch to add some extra protection to the stealth armor other than just a body suit. Some of the pre-war companies had some crazy weapons tech and probably gave them to Vault 100 for the social experiment.


	2. Don't kill the messenger

Meeting 101

[This is the second chapter in what is going to be a continuing series, leave some feedback and let me know what you want to see happen.  
I'm just going with the flow so suggestions are always welcome.  
Once again stay tuned for the next chapter.]

We passed through the remains of some old world towns, entire buildings reduced to concrete skeletons. All that was remained were massive piles of concrete and rebar. From the highways we saw the landscape outside the city had been flattened by the bombs, but the rubble of the concrete giants had created new hills and mountains. Climbing and crawling through this new terrain was slowing us down to half speed which would double the time to D.C. The training missions in the mountains helped us navigate the debris safely but had only given us a glimpse of how completely devoid of life this new world is. It failed to prepare us for just empty everything seemed. There were still trees standing, but they had been fossilized in the wake of the nuclear blasts. The only plant life we saw were small patches of grass barely surviving in the radioactive soil. The sky was the constant grey it had been in the mountains and the roads were just as dull making it hard to keep track of how far we had traveled in any given day. We talked about what thought the problem might be at Vault 101, and how long we'd be there for.

Four days into our trip David spoke up while we were setting up camp in a rusted out train car, "So you know how our PIP boys have a radio function right, well I've been messing around with it for a while now and I've developed a radio channel we can use to communicate at a distance. I haven't tested how far the range is but it should reach about half a mile. It'll let me and Linda stay in touch with you guys when we're scouting ahead."

George put his massive rucksack down outside his tent, "How'd you manage that?" he walked back toward the middle of the camp with his LMG still slung over his shoulder. I came out of my tent, "Will it work for all of us?" I asked. Linda actually stopped cleaning her rifle and came over asking "How long will it take to get working?"

David was caught off guard by the bombardment of questions, "It wasn't terribly complicated, I just had to fiddle with the circuitry that connected us to the radio in the vault and with a few modifications I amplified the signal by at least five times its original range" he had regained his composure and continued, "I should be able to do the same with all of our PIP boys and I can have it done by morning if you give them to me now. I can also make the broadcast range even further, but then I run the risk of someone else picking up the signal." David was clearly pleased with himself and all the praise it had earned him.

After we handed our PIP boys over to David and returned what they were doing I went to David's tent. "That's a hell of a thing you came up with; this'll prove invaluable when we get to the city. We'll have to test it out tomorrow." I said trying to hide my excitement. "This is why I brought you along David; you're a hell of a mechanic and an innovative one at that." I clapped him on the shoulder and returned to my tent.

The next day I was woken up by a PIP boy hitting my chest and David telling me to put it on and grab a gun, but before I could ask Linda's voice came through the speaker. "Good morning sunshine, sorry to wake you but we're about to make our first contact with someone from the outside." I panicked for a second before jumping into my Kevlar body suit and grabbing my rifle. Running outside I stumbled over to the rocks where George was taking cover. "Do they know we're here yet?" I asked into the receiver, "how many do you see?"

"I've got eyes on three, but I don't think they're hostile, two of them seem to be guarding the third. Oh and there's a two headed cow with them…" she said casually, "I think he's a traveling salesman or something. Maybe he can help us out with directions or information about the area."

"I don't like this, do they have anything that will go through the Kevlar suits?" I asked into the mic. Looking over the rock I saw what Linda was talking about, three men and a two headed cow, it looked like a trade caravan passing through that might be headed to a settlement.

"They don't have anything that will do more than crack your ribs, don't piss them off though; these are the first people we've met." Linda's voice crackled over the radio channel. "What's the lead one doing…"

A strange voice came over the channel, "Hello? I'm not very comfortable knowing you can see us but we can't see you. How about you come out, it's bad for business when the guards are so jumpy." I stared at my wrist in disbelief, how the hell was he talking to us.

"David I thought you said this was a secure channel!" I yelled into the speaker. I was scrambling for a plan; they wouldn't be able to kill all of us, not with Linda watching us. So I motioned for George to follow me and be at the ready should they fire at us. I stood up, my hand on my sidearm waiting for them to notice me.

"There you are! Come and see what I've got to trade, I'm more than happy to show you the way to Riverside or point you in the direction of the Capital Wasteland" The caravan man said with a big fake grin splitting his face. When George came out from behind the rock he was using as cover the color drained from the salesman's face and I could hear Linda laughing through the radio channel. George looked like a monster as he walked forward. Standing at six and a half feet tall he carried his LMG at his side ready to fire if things went sour. I walked toward the caravan without my hand ever leaving my sidearm, with George following behind me. "Hello, how can I help you," said the caravan trader with less gusto behind his words.

"My name is John, and this is my good friend George, I'm not interested in what you have for sale I just need to know how to get to D.C." I was looking past him at the guards who were shifting around uncomfortably. "We won't hurt you unless you give us reason to, so relax and tell us about the 'Capital Wasteland'."

This seemed to put him at ease a little bit but I could tell he was still nervous so we talked for a while and worked out a deal. If we helped him get to where he was going he'd tell us everything he knew about the Capitol Wasteland. With everyone in agreement I called Linda and David down from wherever they had perched themselves and in five minutes we were on the road as new escorts of a caravan.

I went to talk with the guards while Linda and David introduced themselves to the caravan master. "So where are we headed, and how long until we get there?" I asked one of the guards. They seemed like they knew what they were doing for the most part, they both kept their eyes dancing across the highways watching for danger.

"We don't get much contact on this route kid, at least friendly contact that is," he chuckled, "I'm going to take a guess and say that you're not from around here, am I right?" Before I could respond he continued, "It takes some serious balls and a damn good reason to venture this close to raider territory. In a few miles we'll be crossing into their border briefly, and that's where they usually wait to hit us."

I was curious and asked "How well armed are the raiders that attack you?" I casually unslung my marksman rifle, "because we've got more than enough firepower to hold our own." I checked my rifle to make sure there was a round in the chamber and a full mag loaded.

"They pack whatever they can scavenge off of the caravans they attack so it could be anything from hunting rifles to handguns; maybe even an assault rifle or two. Although they never have much ammo for the weapons and for the most part can't shoot to save their lives. With your help this should go smoothly."

"Good, I'll go fill in the others." I motioned for my team, "Alright boys and girls here's the situation, according to the guards we'll going into hostile territory in a few miles, but I want your eyes and ears open from here on out. I shouldn't have to remind you that everywhere is hostile territory to us. They're expecting raiders to attack so I want Linda to take up the back while George and I take point, and David you're going to stay with the caravan guards, that should give us a nice range of fire if we do run into trouble."

David was the first to speak up, "If this is going to work I'll need a different weapon because a shotgun isn't going to reach them. I'll grab an assault rifle and a handgun from George so I can give better cover fire."

"Good thinking," I turned to Linda "I don't want you using your anti-material rifle on this one, we all know how fond you are of her, but I need you with something you'll be able to fire while standing." I grabbed a .308 rifle with an adjustable scope off of Georges pack and gave it to her. She took it and reluctantly handed Vera over to me.

George turned around and looked at me, "John if we do run into these guys I'll take point and you fall in behind me, I can do more damage with you out of my sights."

"Alright now we've got a plan, I'll fill in Mr. Caravan." I made my way over to the caravan driver filling him in as everyone took their positions. About an hour later Linda came in over my radio, "I've got six men at the next intersection, two of them have rifles, one has a handgun and the rest have knifes…I'll take one of the riflemen, John you get the other. David you take the one with the handgun and George you take care of the rest.

The caravan came to a stop, "What do you need us to do?" asked one of the caravan guards, gripping his rifle so tightly his knuckles were white. Nervous glances were exchanged between the caravan driver and his guards.

George spoke up, "Just keep your heads down, stay out of my way, and you'll be just fine." He said brushing past me, "John use the cars for cover, I'll make my way over to that truck."

"Show time boys and girls, it's the real deal this time so get ready." I gave the signal to Linda and a crack rang out that scared the shit out of the caravan and killed one of the riflemen. He fell off of the flatbed truck he'd been hiding behind falling to the ground in a motionless heap. The second rifleman saw his buddy fall like a rag doll and jumped out of cover firing madly, he almost scored a lucky hit before I put him down with a three rounds to the chest. With the riflemen taken care of the remaining raiders fell out from behind their cover and rushed at us. They didn't make it too far with George on point; they were torn to pieces by his LMG in under a minute. A tense minute after the gun fire stopped Linda gave the all clear over the radio.

"Nice work guys," I said to David and George, then I turned to the caravan, "And you, I believe you owe me some answers about this area now." We walked out of raider territory without any more trouble.

We stayed in Riverside for the afternoon talking to the locals and other travelers learning more about the area around the Capitol Wasteland. There was a man that had come from some place called Rivet City that said a boy from Vault 101 had come out and was wandering the wastes. He said that this boy was responsible for completing Project Purity. It was a pumping station in the Jefferson Memorial that took massive amounts of water from the Potomac River and took the radiation out of it. I pressed him for more information but he said that was all he knew. We left before sundown and headed north in the general direction of the Capitol Wasteland.

After a few days of travel we stumbled into a huge battlefield "What the fuck is that…?" we all asked at once. Not one of us was able to comprehend what we were seeing or what it even was. In the valley below stood a giant fucking robot! It was blasting away everyone in a strange type of power armor and shooting Vertibirds out of the sky. Behind it were men in T45-d power armor supporting the robots advance and taking out the stragglers. It was then that we saw what could have been the boy from Vault 101; he was decked out in T51-b power armor with a big 101 painted across his back. While the other soldiers were carefully staying in formation he was running around the valley shooting at the enemy soldiers and diving away from plasma grenades that were thrown at him. He made it up the side of the valley and was headed toward an old military building with a big radio dish on the top when a missile screamed through the air and hit him square in the chest plate. There goes our link to Vault 101 I thought as he sailed through the air. We were about to leave this battle to sort itself out when I saw him get right back up on his feet and blast a hole clean through the soldier that fired the missile. I looked on in awe, "Oh my god, he's like a tank…" Linda casually added "I think I can help out our friend a little bit." I looked over to Linda who had already set up her anti-material rifle loaded up with armor piercing rounds.

"I'm game, follow me boys we're gonna go lend a hand to these gentlemen." I said grabbing my .308 rifle and grabbed a few clips of armor piercing rounds. George and David lock and load, we're going in hot. Linda you cover us from up here and move up when you need to."

"Here I come, you guys try to keep up," George yelled with a grin on his face and a mini-gun at his hip. "Let's go offer some assistance." He dashed ahead down into the valley with David and I right behind him.

"I don't know about this, we're kind of out gunned here and I'm not really the best shot here." David yelled over the gunfire as he shot down an automatic turret. He was keeping up with us for now but he was quick to slow down and take a knee to shoot. George and I slowed down I was cracking off shots expertly sinking bullets in between the gaps in their armor. The men behind the robot noticed us and one fell back to us with his sights still trained ahead.

"I don't know who you guys are but you shouldn't be here, it's too dangerous for civilians. Turn back the way you came and tell the Brotherhood to send Delta squad in." He fired his laser rifle at a group of the enemy soldiers missing half his shots and taking a blast of plasma in his leg. He yelled and stumbled down to one knee still firing. I leveled my rifle and with six shots I put down four men. George fired on the rest and they toppled over like giant tin cans.

"You sure you don't need our help, but we're not leaving. Come on George let's go find that kid George." George layered cover fire as we scaled the opposite side of the valley to where we had last seen 101. "George cover this exit, I'm gonna find this kid."

"Don't worry John, nobody's going to get in or out without my say, now go get him." George said between bursts of gun fire. "Linda, how are you holding up, everything alright?" He asked into his radio. I left him to his work and went to find the kid.

I entered the concrete building with my rifle raised and ready to fire, but I had little to no training with close quarters combat. I rounded corners and climbed stair cases until I saw what looked like a control room at the end of a hallway. I made my way into the room and was pulled into a bear hug by someone in power armor. "This is definitely not the way I pictured how I'm gonna die." I said with a cold humorless tone.

"How about we start with a name, because you're clearly not Enclave and I've never seen armor like that before." Said the metal clad man that was holding me in a death grip. "Give me a reason, and it had better be a damn good one, to not kill you."

"I love games like these; I'm usually the one asking the questions though. I can't see you but I'm guessing you're the one in the T51-b power armor with 101 covering it. My friends and I have been looking for you for a while now, I'm from Vault 100 and my overseer sent us to check why we lost contact with Vault 101." I said through clenched teeth.

"You picked a hell of a time and place to find me," he released his grip, dropping me to the floor, walking to the control panel and operating it expertly, "Do you know where you are, or who you're talking to?" He turned and looked at me with a cold emotionless gaze. "Do you even know what's going on right now?"

"Somewhere southwest of the Capitol Wasteland, and I'm guessing you're the guy from Vault 101." I said as he turned back to the control panel and checked the monitor. He froze as if he'd seen a ghost, his face went beat red with anger I'd never seen before.

"FUCK!" he slammed his fist through the monitor, sprinted down the hallway and jumped through an open window onto the side of the valley. "GET AWAY FROM LIBERTY PRIME!" he screamed. There was a rumble followed by an explosion that shook the entire building knocking me backwards on my ass. Dust filled the valley making it impossible to see into. Walking past me he said with an ice cold tone, "If you're going to insist on sticking around, just follow me and don't do anything too stupid…"

Ignoring him for the time being I called into the radio, "Everyone sound off; let me know your still out there." George's voice crackled in, "I'm still here John." Followed by Linda, "John…I'm fine but something just fell out of the fucking sky." I waited to the count of ten before calling out to check on David, "David, are you there?" I panicked and ran out down into the valley where I had last seen him. I looked around franticly searching for any sign of him. Linda's voice came over the radio and with a slight tremble she said, "John…I see him, it doesn't look good…he's not breathing."


	3. When the Dust Settles

Ok it's time for an author's note. This is my first story which is why the first chapter is just plain bad. It's too short, lacks detail, and doesn't flow well. I might revise it after a few more chapters but I might keep it too.  
This chapter is very dialog heavy to establish character personalities and backgrounds, mainly 101's background. I need to give Linda and George more dialog and backstory because right now it feels like I'm writing a story based around John.

I couldn't believe it; I didn't want to believe it. David was on the ground motionless with his blood pooling all around his body. His left arm had been severed in the blast and there was a twisted metal fragment the size of my arm that had been lodged into his chest. I stumbled over to where he lay and fell to my knees in front of him barley aware that the Enclave had sent troops back out into the valley. I heard something coming from the radio on my wrist; then I heard it again but louder this time. It was Linda, "John!" she screamed, "get to cover now!" I got to my feet in a daze and was quickly brought back to reality, by George body checking me behind a rock. He picked up his mini-gun and emptied the rest his ammo into a squad of Enclave. He dropped the mini-gun and unslung his LMG.  
"John I'm holding them back for now, but I really need you to snap out of it and start helping thin the herd." She yelled between blasts of her rifle.  
I came to back to my senses with the sound of laser rifles zapping through the air again bringing me out of my haze. I grabbed my rifle from the dirt, shouldering it as I came out from behind cover, and fired into the fresh batch of troops that had come through the cloud of dust. There was a soldier in my sights that primed a plasma grenade and was going to lob it over to where George and I were firing from but before he had the chance I put a round right through the eye lens in his helmet. He collapsed in a heap dropping the grenade and when it detonated it took out his entire squad.  
The dust had settled and I had a clear view of the valley again. I looked around and saw just how many men had been killed in the blast. There were dozens on both sides; laser and plasma rifles littered the valley floor. "Everyone regroup, we've got to find…do you guys hear that?" I asked as a Vertibird soared over the valley. It was coming down to bring in the heavy troops, then from inside the military building a blue laser beam shot out and punched a hole in the left rotor and knocking it out of the sky. We dove behind whatever cover we could find as it hit the ground and exploded in a spectacular ball of flames.  
"You girls still alive down there, or am I going to have to do everything myself?" the voice came from 101. He jumped from the window falling twenty feet before landing and rolling in a summersault to his feet. He was holding a weapon similar to a missile launcher, but it crackled with electricity and had a deep blue glow coming from inside the barrel. "I'm impressed, you three made the Brotherhood look like a bunch of children with fancy toys. What really got me is when you went up against the Enclave with the weapons you've got, other than you're lady friend up there on that ridge blasting their heads off." He laughed, "You've got to be almost as crazy and stupid as me to pull some shit like that." He said with grin. "Who the hell are you three anyway?" he asked with a look of suspicion, "You're definitely not with the Brotherhood and like I said, I've never seen armor like that before."  
"My name is John team leader of Vault 100s' First Recon." I said with more confidence in my voice than I had. Linda came down into the valley and joined us. "Its prototype power armor that's been redesigned. It weighs less and allows more maneuverability; I'm Linda by the way the sharpshooter of First Recon. Nice moves tough guy, where'd you learn to shoot?"  
"I picked up a 10mm pistol when I left Vault 101, killed a few raiders and picked their hunting rifles, and continued to expand my little…armory. In the Capitol Wasteland it's kill or be killed, and I prefer living so I learned on the go I guess you could say, more necessity than anything. That's enough chatter, I need to get moving so if you don't mind I'll be on my way, it shouldn't take long but don't wait up." He turned his back and didn't look back.  
"Where are you going? That's where the Enclave came from; they probably have a base of operations down that way." I shouted after him. "That's right, you catch on pretty quick for a vault dweller. I'm done poking the hornets' nest, I'm going to make it go boom!" He said without looking. I was astonished that he thought he would be able to take on an entire encampment of those crazy bastards. I looked to George and Linda, "Let's go lend him a hand; we can't have him do this all by himself."  
"If you're going to tag along John you're gonna need to pick up some plasma weapons and micro fusion cells, they'll make short work of their power armor. Linda, hold onto that rifle, it'll punch right through the armor, and you…" He said turning back looking at George. "Look around that Vertibird for a Gatling Laser or something; I'm sure there's at least one in there. The GL uses electronic charge packs, find a bunch because you'll burn through them real quick." He turned and walked away.  
"I guess we'll be taking some new guns with us, you head him lets grab some gear and get a move on." George and Linda both nodded and after George found the GL next to the Vertibird with ammo to spare we ran after 101.

((-))

After hours of fighting over control of the military command center of the Enclave I lost count of how many men I had blasted away with the help of George and Linda. We were loaded into a Vertibird that had two men, a woman from the 'Brotherhood', and 101 after some of the heaviest fighting you could ever imagine. 101 didn't even seem fazed by it and he seemed almost happy. I wasn't sure if it was because the fight was over or because he enjoyed it. My train of thought was interrupted by the door of the Vertibird opening and 101 leaning out looking back at the Enclave base when suddenly a bomb massive screamed through the atmosphere and landed right in the middle of the command center. "Ha-ha! Beautiful isn't it!" he screamed over the noise of the Vertibird. Closing the door his expression changed into a dark glare saying to nobody in particular, "That's for him you fuckers."  
After a few minutes of silence 101 spoke up, "It's about an hour back to the Citadel so if you've got any questions now's the time." He looked at all of us until George spoke up. "So what's your name? I'm getting tired of calling out 101 and you taking a minute to realize I'm talking to you." George asked. 101 locked his eyes on George and after a small pause, "James…my name is James." The blonde woman glanced over at him with her eyebrows raised and was about to say something but decided against it when James looked at her with fire in his eyes that would make anyone else shit their pants. George continued, "So James…how 'bout you take us over to Vault 101 so we can finish our mission. I'd like to go home soon, and I think John and Linda would agree."  
"Ha," James barked out a laugh, "They're all dead." He looked me dead in the eye leaning forward, "And I killed most of them…by the looks on your faces I should probably tell you why. My dad left the vault when I was nineteen; the overseer somehow made it my fault and sent vault security to kill me. I had to kill a few guards while I made my way out." He wore a grin that failed to hide the pain it had caused to him.  
"About two months after they chased me out my PIP boy picked up a radio transmission from Vault 101. An old friend called out for my help, something about the vault being in trouble. When I showed up the vault was having a civil war. After I left the vault everyone my age wanted to open the door and follow me out into the wastes. The older generation wanted to keep the vault door shut. I was all for opening the vault door; I wanted them to see the hell that they sent me to..." He was looking out the door of the Vertibird. "Everyone that wanted the doors closed turned on me and tried to ambush me in the atrium. After the ambush failed I had killed nine men and four women, I was only hit once in my shoulder." He paused for a moment, "Then after a few minutes my 'friends' came out of the lower levels. They were horrified at what they saw; I had to kill most of their parents. They looked at me and didn't see the boy that had been chased out of the vault…only a monster that had returned."  
After a long pause Linda asked, "So how are they all dead if you only killed the parents. Did you leave them there to die or did you try to help…you did at least tell them how dangerous the wasteland is right?"  
"They don't deserve my help after what they did to me…not one of them stood up for me when I was declared an enemy of the vault. So no I didn't help them; standing amongst the bodies I told them 'Be free! The Capitol Wasteland awaits you! Anyone that wants to join me, I'm leaving now.' Only one guy came with me; he didn't last more than a day…the stupid fucker got himself gunned down by some raiders."  
"I'm not sure where the rest of them went but I heard through the grape vine that the slavers up at Paradise Falls made a big score recently." He said very casually, as if talking about the weather. "It sounds like the ones that stayed behind got into a bit of trouble. I saw two of them in Megaton begging for a place to sleep, and I think Flack mentioned something about a few new people showing up in Rivet City. So maybe they're not ALL dead, but it won't take long before the wasteland claims them."  
"So you really aren't going to help any of them…even if you know where they are?" I asked, "You grew up with those people and you're just going to let them- "I was cut off by the blonde woman in power armor. "We've crossed back into the Capital Wasteland and are now on route to the Citadel, ETA is two minutes!" She yelled to the rest of the crew.  
"Well kids it looks like question times over. Time to meet the Brotherhood of Steel in all their fucking glory; they renamed the Pentagon the Citadel by the way." He said standing up, "Talk to some of the scribes if you want a little background on the Brotherhood and try to avoid talking to the knights and paladins because you're not actually supposed to be here." He said without looking back at us.

Authors note.  
A short chapter, but I wanted to upload this to set up the next one. I'm going to bring out George and Linda's personalities in the next chapter.  
I think I've established the personality of James pretty well, but if not he's an anti-hero who helps people but never seems to care one way or another. He's sarcastic, rude, and dangerously unpredictable. Because he had to adapt quickly to life in the wasteland he changed from an innocent vault dweller into a wasteland monster (Bad/Neutral Karma).  
I'm planning on greatly improving the personalities and backgrounds of George and Linda but you'll just have to wait for the next chapter I guess.


	4. The search continues

[Authors Note]  
Sorry for the huge delay on this chapter and I know it's short but I needed to get something out. School work and my job keep me busy, and I've been reading a lot of ME and Halo crossovers.  
I know I've made the story unrealistic in the way the recon team seems to be unaffected by all the killing and death in the wasteland. I will make revisions to ALL of the chapters after I finish the story that will explain how they deal with the killing and death. I'm planning finishing this story with two more chapters, but that's not where Vault Recon's story will end, I'm planning on writing a sequel and maybe even some after that.  
In this chapter we're going to see the world through Georges' eyes and maybe Linda's, John is still the main character but I think some personal time with George and Linda to explain who they are is well over due.]

As soon as the Vertibird touched down James jumped out and marched toward an older man in some strange robes. "That's twice that I've beaten the piss out of the Enclave for you now. They're running back to the west coast with their tail between their legs to lick their wounds. Now you can go back to picking your noses and making nice with the locals." He gave a mock salute and a grim smirk. He turned and started for the exit when the blonde woman in power armor spoke up, "You're father would be proud James…proud of what you've done for all the people in the Capitol Wasteland and for helping make Project Purity a reality for everyone, you've really-"

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU'RE TALKING TO!" James roared as he turned on his heel. Tearing off his helmet and throwing it into the dirt, everyone in the courtyard came to a dead stop, James marched to the blonde with a mixture of malice and…pain in his eyes; he was inches away from her face when he growled in a threatening tone, "Don't you ever…tell me what my father would think of me," all the color had drained from the blonde woman's face, "Because you have no idea what you're talking about." He held the gaze for a few more moments before turning to walk away.

"I was just trying-"she was cut off again but not by James yelling at her. He spun on his heel and threw his weight into a punch that hit her square in the chest, putting a large dent in quarter inch steel chest plate of her power armor. She landed hard on her back.

"I don't need you trying to do anything Sarah! You are weak!" He screamed, turning to everyone, "All of you are! Nobody here can do what I do; I fight Enclave kill squads and their Vertibirds for fun! You are struggling to handle the super mutant problem in D.C. ruins. The Pride was almost wiped out by a behemoth! A behemoth that I had to kill for you! I fought the Enclave not because I cared about the safety of anyone here, or 'The People of the Capitol Wasteland'." He seemed to get a hold of himself but the fire in his eyes was still burning strong. "The only reason I fought the Enclave was because they tracked me back to my home in Megaton and almost killed me." He walked toward Sarah, who was on the ground in shock, and crouched down next to her. "Now that I've taken care of them…I'm done with this Capitol Wasteland." Venom practically dripping from his words, he stood and walked over to his helmet, putting it back on he strode out of the gate and left.

"Who are you three anyway? I doubt you guys are just wandering the Capital Wasteland when you stumbled into the battle." Sarah asked the three strangers. She had them follow her into the Citadel to the armory. Linda wasn't crazy about the idea warning John that they had no idea what the layout of the place was and they could be walking into an ambush.

We arrived at the armory and Sarah gave her suit of T45-b to the armory master for repairs, then turning to us she said, "I saw you three in action, and you'd be a great addition to the Brotherhood; I'll talk to my father and maybe he'll let you enlist." Sarah looked at me for a response.

"That's a very generous offer, but we'll have to think it about it, can we stay the night? There's not much in the way of shelter out there and we could use some R&R, even if only for one night." I asked, trying my best to sound interested with her offer. I was surprised at how highly she thought of the Brotherhood when James and my team put all of them to shame in battle.

"Sure, you can stay in the barracks, talk to paladin Gunny and tell him I sent you. Until then I'd like you to meet the Lyons Pride." She took us to A-ring to the 'Lyons Den', which was just an old conference room, and introduced us to her team.

-Georges POV-

'What the hell is he thinking, leading us into a lion's den, there's always a plan but this is stupid even for John,' I thought before remembering his role in the team.

"Until then I'd like you to meet the Lyons Pride." Sarah said as we entered a conference room with five men and one woman relaxing around a large table that was once used for meetings. When we entered we were greeted by a man named Vargas who was clearly a military man through and through, the others were a lot more relaxed.

"Hey big guy," said a man who was almost as big as me." You gonna that helmet off…It's makin' me nervous." He set the super-sledge he'd been calibrating down on the table and walked toward me. "Name's Kodiak," he held his hand out, "Sarah said we'd be havin' guests, but she didn't tell me they'd be the ones that helped blow up Adams Air Force base." 

"I'm going to talk with Sarah and Vargas, you and Linda should get to know her squad." John said as he walked to the door with the two strangers following him.

'Great, time to make new friends, not my strong suit.' I thought. For the next few hours were spent eating talking with the Lyons Pride, swapping stories and showing off war scars. Gallows pulled out beers and a few bottles of whiskey to wash the food down. After a while Linda and I got comfortable enough to relax and kick back with the Pride, explaining the unclassified version of our mission.

'Linda's a lot better with this social bullshit than I am; I make her look like a social butterfly,' I thought. Kodiak, Glade, and I watched as Linda and Dusk, the Prides sniper, were having a heated debate about who was the better shot. For the past few hours I had been talking with Glade, the heavy weapons specialist, about tactics and uses of conventional LMGs and mini-guns. I showed off my LMG that I'd been modifying and caring for since I had been assigned to Vault Recon as the heavy weapon specialist. Linda hadn't taken Vera out to show off but when Dusk showed off her .308 rifle with a custom high power scope and suppressor and started bragging about her accuracy with the thing I spoke up, "So that's the rifle you've told us so much about; Linda why don't you introduce her to Vera." I said with a smirk.

"You named your rifle?" asked Dusk. "That's…actually not a bad idea; maybe I should give my .308 a name?"

"Something like that…It'd be better if she introduced herself." Linda said as she stood and walked to her pack. "I think you'll like her," Linda looked back at Dusk. "She doesn't make friends for very long though so watch out," quietly laughing at the reaction she got from Dusk as she uncovered Vera. "This is my modified variant of an old Barrett M82 Anti-Material rifle; it fires depleted uranium rounds that have enough kinetic energy to punch clean through your T45-b steel plating and even the Enclaves power armor didn't stand a chance against Vera." Linda said proudly displaying Vera on the table with the bipod holding the barrel up making the weapon look even more menacing.

"I've never seen an operational one before, only pictures in some old holotapes" Dusk said in amazement, wide eyed she looked up at Linda, "This is incredible, can I hold it?"

Linda's shot a look up at Dusk, grabbing Vera off the desk, cradling it like a small child against her chest plate. "No you can't hold _her_; sorry but I don't let anyone hold her…Vera's a dying breed, one of the last of her kind and I don't plan on losing her." I saw a tear start to form in her eye; she'd had a little too much whiskey.

John had returned and spoke up from behind us, "Linda, take Vera to the barracks and clean her before tucking her away for the night." She looked up and nodded. After she packed up and left the room John said, "She named the rifle after her mother. She won't tell us why but she's very protective of it, I picked it up once and I got a few cracked ribs in return." Dusk looked somewhat relieved that she hadn't picked up Vera without asking.

"George let's head over to the barracks now, we've got plans for tomorrow." John said as he walked out the door.

We settled down into the barracks for the night and for the first time that day we were at ease. I sat awake for the hours thinking over what had happened that day. Thinking about what we had lost…the image still fresh in my mind. I finally drifted off to an uneasy sleep.

I was back at the battle, 'Don't worry John, nobody's going to get in or out without my say, now go get him.' I heard myself say with confidence. John disappeared into the building and I turned back to fire down on the Enclave troops, who now had my undivided attention. As I relived the battle, I was suddenly sick to my stomach. Watching the men in the valley below fall under the rain of bullets, one after another they died, their blood flowing from holes in power armor. Blood curdling screams filled the air but were barely audible over the thundering roar of my mini-gun. Minutes went by then suddenly 101 crashed through a window landing next to me and shouted, "GET AWAY FROM LIBERTY PRIME!" I looked down to where the robot stood and saw David staring upwards. I heard a whistling sound and in slow motion the robot was hit by a missile, followed by a blast that knocked me threw me backwards on my ass and cracked rubble off the sides of the buildings. It felt like a cherry bomb went off inside my helmet and as I stumbled to my feet in shell shock I stood and stared down into the valley. I saw David, he was missing his left with a meter long spike of metal that was protruding from his chest pinning him to the ground that had gone right through the chest plate.

I woke up in a cold sweat with a shout…I looked around seeing the Brotherhood initiates falling off of their bunks in a daze. John and Linda had flown out of bed ready for a fight to the death. Linda was crouched at the foot of my bed with knife and pistol at the ready, John had flipped his cot onto the side and had his sidearm out scanning the room.

When they both realized that there was no danger they holstered their weapons and turned to me with confused looks. The dream left me disoriented and confused, but John snapped me out of it when he asked "What was that about George?"

I sat on my bunk and after I regained my composure I confessed to John and Linda, "I had a dream…I was back in the valley…" I trailed off remembering every detail of what I'd seen. I looked up at John, "I'm going to get some fresh air."

John thought about that for a moment, "It's not a bad idea; I'm going to find Sarah and ask where Megaton is. We're going after James…" He checked his pip boy, "We're leaving at 0600, pack it up and say you're goodbyes we're leaving in ten minutes." 

After packing up my rucksack Linda and I went 'Den' where we found Kodiak, Glade, and Dusk. After telling them we were leaving they wished us luck and offered me some extra ammunition for my gun and Linda a map of the DC ruins. We thanked them and left to meet up with John outside of the Citadel.

-Johns POV-

George and Linda met up with me outside the Citadel at 0600 on the dot. I smirked under my helmet thinking 'At least that down time didn't make them too laidback.' I gave them the rundown of the day. Sarah had told me where to find Megaton, we'd be walking north through some ruins of the city and across a bit of wasteland. The total trip would take about a full days walk. "Let's move out, George you've got point while Linda and I cover the back. No more than ten yards apart so stay close." John looked toward the north, "We've burning daylight, let's get going."

It was 0900 and we were about halfway through the ruined outskirts of the former capitol when we came to an intersection. Suddenly the hair on the back of stood up and I felt eyes on us. We hadn't survived this long in First Recon by luck; my gut had saved my life and the lives of my teammates more times than I could remember. I signaled to stop and take shelter, moving silently but quickly inside of one of the many partially destroyed buildings. After we cleared the building checking all the rooms we set up a loose perimeter on the second floor. "I trust both of you felt it too…" Linda and George nodded in response, "Good, that intersection was an obvious ambush, the left and right blocked off by cars and busses forcing the traffic forward down that street. Here's what we're going to do…"

For the next fourteen hours we positioned ourselves in the building where we watched and waited. When night came it was pitch black, the constant cloudy sky blocking the moon light made it impossible to see farther than across the street. For anyone other than us that is. We had all received a few upgrades to our helmets before we left for Vault 101; night vision was intergraded into the visor for nighttime recon and low power magnification as well.

I broke the silence, "We're going around…this isn't our objective. These raiders are lucky," I said with a smirk under my helmet. "If we weren't pressed for time to catch James before he leaves Megaton, then we'd make the wasteland a safer place."

"Hold up just a minute John," Linda said from one floor up. "It looks like they captured someone from Vault 101." She jumped down to us landing without a sound, "It's a woman, and we need to get her out of there John. You know what those animals do to women." Vera was slung across her back. "I've counted the number of raiders and it's nothing we can't handle, there's a little more than a dozen, and most of them have been drinking some nasty looking booze."

I looked back toward the raiders base considering the situation for a moment; crafting a plan of action that would cost us the least amount of ammo, the most effective positions and formations to use, and finally decided that it would be morally irresponsible to leave her in her current situation. If she really was from Vault 101 than she could show us the way, or at the least point us in the right direction.

I turned to face George and Linda, "We'll get into the Tri-pod formation George you flank the right while I'll flank left. Linda, get elevation so you've got a clear view on the entire main road, that's the kill-box the intersection. We'll force them out into the main road and toward you Linda." Glancing up looking at his team he asked "Linda where is the girl being held?"

"In the brick building beside the dinner, two of them went in right after you suggested we go around."

"They're not heavily armored so use the .308 armor piercing rounds," before Linda could protest I added, "it's quieter than Vera and the magazine holds twice the rounds." I turned to George, "You're going to use the riot shotgun with the buck shot, which should make pushing them into the street easier. I'll take my assault carbine and infiltrate the brick building. Both of you are to wait for my signal to execute the Tri-pod."

"Would that be the usual signal?" Linda questioned with a small grin, already knowing the answer.

I looked at her and with a smirk, "A single gunshot."

Authors note:  
New chapters are going to be even more delayed, sorry but I have to go back and make revisions to the first two chapters. I know how Vault Recons first story will end, and there's only two more chapters left for me to wright. It's unlikely but that may change. Also I might switch the story from first person to third person in the sequels. That seems to work a little better for other fanfictions, so I'll give it a shot.

Let me know what you think, where I can improve, and what you think should happen in the sequels. As always, Stay tuned for the next chapters.


End file.
